RARITAN TWP. — Hunterdon Medical Center is seeing 10% to 20% more emergency cases per day than usual, Robert Church, director of the Emergency Department, reported today, Nov. 7.

Although the number of emergency patients peaked at 140 on Wednesday, Oct. 31, when injuries were being suffered by people cleaning up after Hurricane Sandy, the traffic through the department is still above the baseline of about 100 patients a day.
Church said the department is treating more cases of:

Dehydration — Five to 10 cases a day are checking in. In the wake of the hurricane, refrigerators have gone out and well pumps aren’t working so many people “aren’t as hydrated as normal,” and senior citizens are more susceptible to the condition.

Symptoms include dry lips, tongue and skin, along with confusion, lethargy and sleepiness. These are somewhat subtle, Church said, and might not be properly noticed or interpreted by the sufferer. He encourages people to “check on their elderly parents and neighbors at least once a day.” He said a lot of people are reluctant to undertake a trip to the store for water or other beverages while some roads are still blocked.

Behavioral health problems — People with pre-existing conditions are coming in because of stress and isolation caused by the hurricane and its aftermath. He said the hospital has been sending “screeners” out to the shelter and other places to proactively deal with these issues, but now some of the patients have reached their limit.

Carbon monoxide poisoning — Families are still coming in who have not placed their generators outdoors, he said. The machines must be 25 feet away from the house; fumes can be trapped when a generator is running on a porch and can get indoors to afflict the family. Again, the symptom — sleepiness — is subtle and fades into death.

Hypothermia? Not yet, but some elderly people are coming in since the temperatures dropped, Church said. They are lonely and cold, but not clinically suffering from hypothermia.

Some people are also coming in with conditions that would have been controlled or treated if they’d had access to their regular physicians, Church said, but those offices may be closed or not readily accessible.